18th Day of Christmas
by kuragari nikkou
Summary: Part of my Days of Christmas project. Toph decides to get away from her lovey dovey friends during the holidays and meets a guy on the outskirts of town. Warnings: My take on how Toph met her future husband. Just some nameless guy I made up.


All characters © their respective owners

-ONONTHEYSEND

Akumu: Zzz…Zzz-AH! I mean, on the eighteenth day of Christmas my true love wrote for me!

Warnings: This story's not a parody. I don't know who Toph falls in love with after Avatar and before Korra, so I made up this nameless guy. Yeah…this is my take on how Toph might have met her future husband…

-ONWITHOUTEND

'_Ugh…'_ the blind earthbender thought. _'I hate this time of year.'_

Now, make no mistake. Toph didn't hate Christmas. A holiday where people could be happy and decorate and buy expensive gifts for each other? What's there to hate? Sure, it was no Hanukkah where you got eight gifts, but it was still a pretty sweet holiday. There was one thing she could go without, though.

"Look, Katara! Mistletoe!" Aang would point out for the twentieth time today. Katara would giggle at that, and they'd proceed to get into a smooch fest in front of Toph. Sure, she could be spared from seeing it since she was standing on cloth instead of bare ground, but she could still _hear_ them sticking their tongues in their mouths and swapping spit. Ugh…they'd gotten to the point where they'd ignore her complaints and teasing, so she walked out of the room. At least Sokka didn't have anyone to make out wi-!

"Suki!" That was the boomerang wielder now. Toph could hear him tromping out onto the snow to greet the girl. Oh, that's right. Suki was visiting for the holidays. That meant… "Why are you holding that weed up?"

"It's mistletoe." Suki replied pointedly.

"Oh." Sokka would initially say, as dense as ever. "Oh! Ohhhhh!" Cue smooch fest.

"Oogies." Toph said quietly to herself. She groaned and headed out another way. Couldn't this holiday do without that stupid mistletoe tradition? She raised up some earth to part the blankets of snow and walked on the newly raised ground. Toph was never really fond of snow. Shoes didn't let her see, and snow would freeze her feet off if she stayed out too long. But she'd much rather stay out of the inn if that lip locking kept up!

x.X.x

Wandering around by herself was boring, but she still preferred it over staying at the inn with her lovey-dovey friends. It wasn't like she was worried about being attacked or anything, but she didn't have anywhere to _go_. They were staying in a relatively quiet town. Even Aang got tired of all the paparazzi pestering him. Well, that, and he wanted a little kissy time with Katara.

"Hope I'm not like that when I get a boyfriend." She said to herself.

"Not like what?" The guy near her asked. She whipped around, but she couldn't see whoever it was. He must've been standing on the snow rather than the ground. He didn't sound like a bad guy, though… "You should be careful when you're out this far from town. Lots of wild animals here, you know."

"Eh. I can take care of myself." She shrugged off his warning.

"I suppose so." The guy dismissively agreed as he eyed the path of ground trailing her. "But if you're traveling by yourself, I doubt you can get far without any supplies."

"I'm just wandering around. All my friends are really cuddly during this time of year." Her eyes lit up a little as she put her hands to her face and mimicked Aang's voice. " 'Oh, sweetie, look! Mistletoe!' Ugh!" She stuck her tongue out. "Major oogies!" The guy laughed at that.

"Sounds like a real honeymoon phase." He thought out loud.

"Phase nothing!" Toph denied. "They've been like that ever since they hooked up. It's like a never-ending snuggle fest."

"All couples have their fights, though." He asserted. "I'm sure they'll be quarreling at some points in their life. It'd give you some peace, wouldn't it?"

"Nah, they'd just ask me to choose sides." She waved it off. "I'm glad that they're happy and in love and all, but they could tone it down a little. They're _already_ bad the rest of the year."

"Emotions are kind of like that." He said his thoughts out loud. "Hard to control and contain, so you let it all out. At least with love, you have a partner who can tolerate it."

"Yeah, I guess…" Toph agreed. "They still give me major oogies, though."

"Well, if you don't have anywhere to be anytime soon, you could hang out with me till those 'oogies' go away." He offered.

"Really?" She asked before she realized it. "But don't you have somewhere to be?"

"Yeah. Holidays. Busy schedules. Go figure. I guess I'm not being a good role model if I say I'm avoiding it, but I am." He didn't sound guilty at all. "My friends won't need me right away. Well, if it's all right with you, that is."

"Oh, that's fine." She laughed. "But…why me? We just met."

"You've heard of gravity, haven't you?" He asked.

"Of course I have! I'm not five." She didn't mean to sound offended. "Gravity makes it hard for things to stay up in the air."

"That's Earth's gravity." He nodded to that. "But the gravity I'm talking about revolves around people. Ever wonder why you just start talking to a person? You can think it's because they're pretty or charismatic or cool, but sometimes, they just have a gravity about them that pulls you in."

"So you're saying that I've trapped you in my gravity or something?" She tilted her head slightly. He laughed at that.

"Not how I would put it, but yeah. And I'm not necessarily complaining either."

"Well, all right." Toph smiled at that. "Do you want to have a snowball fight or something?" She was hoping he'd say no. She didn't hate them. A game where you throw stuff at people? It was pretty sweet, but she'd have to be more conscious of making an earth path for herself if she didn't want to step on the snow and get temporarily blinded. That, and Katara and Aang normally cheated with their snowbending.

"Let's stop by the market first." He suggested. "I'd like to buy you a gift for the holidays."

"What?" She asked. "You barely met me!" She almost laughed.

"Yeah, I know." He answered. "I just don't want to forget you."

"Well, I'm not leaving any time soon." She smiled. "We don't have to go now."

"We should still try to take advantage of the holiday sales." He offered. She scoffed at that.

"Why don't you just admit you're making up excuses to spend more time with me?" She joked.

"Yeah." He laughed guiltily.

"Huh?" She replied brilliantly.

"C'mon, let's go." He walked onto her earth path, and she could see what he looked like. He didn't seem all that much older than her, but he was a whole head taller than she was. He probably wasn't a bender judging by the bow and quiver of arrows fastened to his back. He had a nice smile. Oh, she hoped she wasn't going to turn into Katara! But she liked this guy. The ground told her he was either being completely honest or he was really good at lying like Azula was. That, and she felt oddly…comfortable around him.

x.X.x

"Toph, where have you been?" Aang asked as she arrived home. She didn't answer him as she passed by and entered her room. He watched her retreating back for a while till he decided to ask Katara about it.

"Hey, Sweetie? Toph's being _really_ quiet." He told her.

"That's odd." She placed a hand under her chin in a thinking pose.

"You don't think something happened to her while she was wandering around, do you?" He asked worriedly.

"Well, we can try to ask her over dinner." Katara decided. "Also, look, sweetie!" She pointed to the ceiling. Aang looked up to see a telltale sprig. "Mistletoe!" She chimed.

"Oogies!" Sokka called from his room.

"Hypocrite!" His sister called back.

x.X.x

It was a festive dinner to end a festive night. Everyone was around the table, eating their fill. Well, everyone except Toph. Aang and Katara exchanged worried looks.

"Hey, Toph," Sokka started, "you going to finish your meat?" he pointed to the roasted slices of whatever animal hybrid that was on her dinner plate.

"Huh?" She asked as she came out of her thoughts. "Oh, no. I'm…not hungry." She answered quietly as she looked down.

"More for me!" the boomerang wielder exclaimed as he poured the contents of her plate onto his. Aang and Katara blinked. Then they turned to each other.

"Sweetie, you don't think…?" Katara started.

"Toph's in love!" Aang shouted incredulously.

"W-what?!" Toph shouted in turn. "No, I'm not!"

"You are!" Aang asserted. "Look at how red your face is!"

"I'm not!" Toph protested, her face turning an even brighter shade of red. Suki laughed. Katara tag-teamed Aang in the teasing. Sokka ate his meat uncaringly for Toph's alleged puppy love. Toph denied everything. Appa and Momo could hear them from the barn they were staying in. Appa yawned sleepily while Momo tilted his head.

Christmas was never boring with this group.

-THEIRSAPPYTONETOEVERYHOME

Akumu: Zzz…mrgh…! I don't know what possessed me to write this, but I couldn't think of any more Christmas stories I could parody that were less than five pages to type. I don't want a repeat of my Wario Scrooge Christmas Carol parody in the Smash Bros section, after all.

Holiday Moral: Your future spouse could meet you at any moment.

Akumu: How many of you guys were expecting a less than pleasant meeting? C'mon, I know you're there. Sorry to disappoint you. I only know about my own experience in love, and it was love at first sight for me. Obviously, that's not going to work with Toph, so I tried really hard to make it not a love at first sight kind of thing. Tell me what you think! Keep in mind I only had an hour to write this, so I had to stick with my first ideas most of the time.

To my first reviewer:

Akumu: I agree. Thanks for your input.


End file.
